June 27, 2009

Beware the Real Unemployment Problem in America

There’s an unemployment problem in this country, but it’s not the one you think it is.The unemployment rate, already over 10 percent in 14 states, is expected to reach that figure nationally in the U.S. later this year, and most blame it entirely on the Great Recession that presently plagues us.While that blame is not ascribed entirely unfairly, focusing exclusively on the current, acute economic troubles so intently may obscure a bigger, more ominous threat to the long-employed: cultural change and technological progress.

From automobiles to newspapers, evolution in technologies, as well as changes in temperament and taste, are yielding significant and everlasting changes in whole industries, to include seeing to their outright elimination.This condition will persist long after the current, shorter-term economic troubles have ended, and for many the remedy will be found with adaptation; the ability to recognize, with great foresight, the societal changes in direction and smartly react to them.

The adaptation about which I speak may take any of a variety of forms in its manifestation.It may mean physically moving from your present location to one where jobs are more plentiful; it may mean returning to school, to earn advanced certifications or a new profession altogether; it may mean harnessing the power and opportunity presented by the Internet age to cultivate multiple streams of income from several of the mechanisms available therein.

Adaptation is not always pleasant, because adaptation means more work and sacrifice.That said, the writing is on the wall, my friends, and those who choose not to see it may well find themselves represented in unemployment figures long after the current economic mess is a part of history.

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

If the jobs do come back to America I feel it will be far too late. What has happened to us is corporate greed at its worst. To fix the unemployment problem in America without the return of jobs becomes a scheduling problem. Tax incentives need to be given to employers who are willing to change their work schedule to 4 ten hour days on with one crew and 4 ten hour days on with another crew. 4 days on 4 days off, the five day work week is over. Twice as many jobs can be created with this work schedule. A person will lose on the average of 2 days a month, which is 24 days out of the year. This may cause a person to tighten their budget but they won’t loose their home and another family can keep their home. This country needs to put everyone back to work and now!

Both our college-educated, experienced & skilled kids are in this underemployment. Both are in their mid-twenties.
Both have lost jobs during Obama’s regime and both scurried to get re-employed as quickly as possible.
Both are grateful to have jobs, but they had to really work at it.
Neither has a dream job, but both plugging through and paying bills.